The Dickens Controversy in The Spirit of The Times

PMLA ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-283
Author(s):  
Richard Hauck
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Native American ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
The South ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Times

The history of the piracy of Dickens' humorous works in the New York Spirit op the Times shows that both his presence in and his disappearance from the paper contributed to the shape of early comic realism in America. The Spirit (1831-61) is generally thought to have been devoted to the tall tales and humorous yarns of the South and Southwest, but its editor, William T. Porter, also pirated British serials such as Pickwick just when potential American humorists were beginning to read and contribute to the Spirit. The evidence in the journal indicates that they deliberately imitated Dickens. After the publication of American Notes, letters to the editor violently attacking Dickens reveal some acute American sensitivities of the period. When Porter saw that American Notes was creating a controversy, he stopped pirating Dickens' works and encouraged his contributors as humorists in their own right. Thus Dickens inadvertently played an influential role in what is usually thought of as a purely native American literary genre.

From Sixpenny Entry to Five Shilling Subscription: Charting Cathedral Outreach and Friends’ Associations in the 1920s and 1930s

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Muskett
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The North ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Times

AbstractAll Anglican cathedrals in England have formal associations of Friends (like other institutions in the heritage sector). The majority arose in the 1920s/30s, a period that coincided with the gradual development of a focused outreach strategy by cathedrals, and the abandonment of sixpenny entrance fees. By analysing Letters to the Editor and news reports in The Times, this article explores the origins of cathedral Friends’ associations. The sources illustrate the benefits of Friendship for both sides of the dyad: for the cathedrals, primarily the five shilling subscriptions and the creation of an informed supporter base; and for the members, mainly esoteric benefits. It is also demonstrated that, in the north, Friends’ gifts directly replaced cathedral/diocesan resources being deployed for social welfare. A particular value in focusing on the history of the cathedral Friends’ movement is that it highlights the history of the cathedrals themselves in this difficult inter-war period.

Statues and Status Quo. Time of Monuments in the United States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Zaremba
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Art Criticism ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Visual Culture Studies ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
History Of

In 2015, an armed young white man entered the church in Charleston and killed nine African-Americans. He was guided by racist motives, modeled on Confederate soldiers, and had previously been willing to photograph himself with the Confederate flag. This event once again triggered a discussion in the United States not only about the ideological but also material heritage of the Confederacy states, including the monuments ubiquitous in the cities of the South: memorials to Confederacy leaders but also to anonymous soldiers. These monuments have become the subject of stormy disputes. Some of them were removed by the authorities (New York, New Orleans), some were overthrown in grassroots actions by activists (including Durham and Chapel Hill, referred to in the article); however, a large group was defended by the Republican state authorities. The article - written from the perspective of visual culture studies - aims to recognize the specificity of the monument's medium in the context of these disputes. It argues that the most important characteristic of the medium considered obsolete today (static, unchangeable, heavy, physical, public, etc.) is its ability to present itself as natural, eternal, "historical". These monuments do not only serve to distort the history of civil war in the states of the South (particularly by erasing slavery from it). At the time of their creation - several decades after the war - they were tools of an aggressive policy of segregation and were intended to emphasize the domination of whites and the permanence of pre-war racial divisions. The analysis of a contemporary artistic "monumental" intervention - Kehinde Wiley's Rumors of War, unveiled in December 2019 - will help in recognizing the specificity of the monument's medium. This work, from the perspective of art criticism falling into the traps of politics of representation, from the perspective of visual culture studies turns out to be an important guide, entering into a complicated dialogue with the monuments of five Confederate leaders still present at the Monument Avenue in Richmond, the capital of the secessionists.

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